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CHRIS STEVENSON, QMI AGENCY

May 6, 2012

, Last Updated: 6:06 PM ET

GLENDALE, ARIZ. - They came together for the first time 20 years ago, one a cerebral coach, one a lanky goaltender who would go on to an 18-year NHL career and the last a gritty forward with a heart as big as the Prairies.

Two decades ago, the trio helped an underdog Team Canada chase gold at the 1992 Olympic Winter Games in Albertville.

Now they are helping the underdog Phoenix Coyotes chase silver in the desert:

Dave Tippett, 50, was the veteran defensive forward who played through a painful injury in those Olympics and now, as the coach of the Coyotes, has them one win away from advancing to the third round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in franchise history. The Coyotes can advance to the Western Conference final with a win Monday night in Game 5 against the Nashville Predators.

Sean Burke, 45, was the goalie, playing in his second Olympics for King. Burke is now the Coyotes director of player development and goaltending coach.

Dave King, 65, the coach with the '92 Canadian Olympic team, which wound up losing the gold-medal game to the Unified Team, is now the development coach for the Coyotes.

Three guys whose connection spans back to early in their careers, intertwined again in this unlikely story of a franchise owned by its league, run on a modest budget (in the bottom third of the league in payroll, along with the Predators, it should be pointed out) and winning in the playoffs.

It is not a coincidence that the philosophy behind the Coyotes has its roots in how those Olympic teams to which King, Tippett and Burke belonged were built and run.

Tippett first played for King in the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo and was captain of Team Canada. Burke played for King in the 1988 Games in Calgary and all three came together in 1992 in Albertville.

The NHL was not part of the Olympics then and Team Canada was made up of players they could beg, borrow and steal. Eric Lindros, in exile after refusing to join the Quebec Nordiques, who made him the first pick in 1991, was part of that 1992 team. Mostly it was a few guys on loan from NHL teams, minor leaguers and college kids. Tippett left the Washington Capitals to take part.

Burke was sitting out in a contract dispute with the New Jersey Devils and joined the team.

The underdog Canadians were up against the new CIS team as the Soviet Union had dissolved. Almost the entire roster of that CIS team wound up playing in the NHL. It had the likes of Alexei Kovalev, Sergei Zubov, Nikolai Khabibulin, Igor Kravchuk, Vladimir Malakhov, Dmitri Yushkevich and Alexei Zhamnov, among others, who went on to solid careers in the NHL.

In the '80s, King, Tippett and Burke were up against the powerhouse Soviet teams with the likes of Vladislav Tretiak and the KLM Line of Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larinov and Sergei Makarov.

"It was always about the team, always about the group. Back then, especially my first time with Kinger, if you didn't play well as a team -- we were playing against Russia a couple of times, Tretiak and the KLM line -- if we don't play well together, we got no chance," said Tippett. "We didn't have much chance anyway, but there would be no chance.

"He instills that in you. Tactically, you can have a gameplan, but you've got to play well together. If you do that, you can have a chance to win. I learned that early from Dave King. We were talking about that before the game (Game 4 against the Predators), how I get asked a lot of questions about the Olympics. I played once as an amateur and once as a pro. That's been a bond that's been there ever since '83 with Dave."

King needed players who would be committed to the team concept. He found that in Tippett. Though he was just a 22-year-old in 1984, King made him captain. When a couple of other players were feeling the pressure and weight of expectations, King asked Tippett, no older than than those other guys, if he would go to breakfast with them and settle them down.

"Any time you're in the national team program, in those days, it was us against the Russians and we didn't have the access to all the players they have now at the Olympics. Your task was really big so our teams were always close," said King. "I guess when you come through the national team program, there's a real chemistry, a real bond that's deep."

IMMENSE RESPECT

When Tippett became the coach of the Coyotes in September 2009, Burke was already part of the Coyotes organization as the director of prospect development.

King was living in nearby Scottsdale.

Tippett hired him to be an assistant coach for the Coyotes until this season, when he became the Coyotes development coach.

"I think it works well for us because there is an immense amount of respect there from myself and Tippett towards Kinger as a coach," said Burke, whose duties for this season changed to director of player development and goaltending coach. "When Tipp got the head coaching job, he really liked having Dave around as a guy he had a lot of respect for, but a guy that could kind of sit back and evaluate in other ways.

"It's just his immense wealth of experience. Any of these situations we find ourselves in, little plays, things late in games, he's always there to remind everybody. He's seen so much, so many different things. We were talking today about the Czech power play and what they do and he saw that 35 years ago. Things you see now that you think are new are so old they're becoming new again.

"To have him around for his experience, it just gives you confidence because there are not a lot of things he hasn't seen."

Tippett said each of them bring something to the group.

"It's just a solid respect for each other," said Tippett.

He likes Burke's ability to communicate his own experiences to goaltender Mike Smith to help him deal with situations. Burke has helped Smith become a Conn Smythe candidate in these playoffs.

"It's personal experience as well as tactical knowledge. (Burke) just sees things clearer than other guys. But what makes him a great coach is the way he gives it to his goaltenders. He's been through all these challenges. That gives him credibility with guys," said Tippett.

As far as King's contribution, Tippett makes it simple.

"He is one of the elite coaches, tactically, and one of the most knowledgable hockey men in the world."

SAME PRINCIPLES APPLY

If you wanted to build a case that a team can reflect the personality of its coach -- in this case, several of its coaches -- then the Phoenix Coyotes might be Exhibit A.

The Coyotes are comfortable playing close games. They don't get flustered. They rarely beat themselves. They are technically sound. Those are the same foundations upon which those Canadian national teams under King in the 1980s were built.

"Tipper is such an even-keeled guy. As a young player in '84, he was the same way. He's always had a stability. He doesn't get flustered. His talk is always the same: 'Hang around the game,'" said King.

"I've coached a lot of players and he's probably the smartest player I ever coached. He's like Igor Larionov. I always equated him to that. Larionov was a more skilled guy, but Tipper could read off everybody else. When teammates did something that maybe weren't in the right manner, he's always there, always supporting behind the mistake and he cleared it up, he erased the mistake.

"When the game gets dialed up and the heat's on, there's no panic with Tipper and the team reflects that."

King summed up Tippett as a coach this way: "He's hard to please, but easy to play for."

"He's a guy who demands a lot from his players, but he also demands a lot from himself," said Coyotes defenceman Keith Yandle. "When he came in, he changed the whole organization around and basically took us from the gutter to the playoffs the last three years.

"Pretty much all that success can come back to him. He's easy to talk to. He's a players' coach and a guy you want to win for."

Tippett said his team's personality is as much a reflection of the circumstances around it, the uncertainty about the ownership situation, not knowing if this would be their last season in Glendale.

"I think it's the whole situation that is around us. If we were a group that would get flustered, I would say what you do, whether it's hockey or life or whatever, you would find an excuse not to be successful. This team has never used an excuse. More than anything, we use the adversity as a rallying point or as a motivator. There have been times when it's been hard.

"I think our group has become very galvanized to it. There's not a pity party around here. We all hope it works out. There's been a lot of people who have put a lot of hard work into this organization. There's a good base of fans. I look at it as kind of a depressed stock with lots of upside there. I love that the guys are showing the people of Arizona that there is a team worth coming to see here. It might not be the flashiest team or the prettiest team, but it's a team that your fans can be proud of because there's a work ethic, there's a commitment to winning. We'll keep plugging along and hope it works out."

If it does, they can look back and see the roots for the success planted in their time together with Team Canada.